Nursing home resident takes ambulance to the polls

INDIANAPOLIS – Thousands of Indiana voters made their way to the polls Tuesday, but one woman had to go to extraordinary lengths to make sure she was able to cast her ballot.

"Because my life depends on it," said Karen Vaughn. "Everybody’s life depends on it, and I’m not gonna let that opportunity go away.”

For Vaughn, voting is not just a civic duty, "it's my right."

Vaughn is an Indianapolis resident who has been living in a Centerville nursing home since last December. After a mix-up with her absentee ballot, she was told she had to vote in person in Marion County, so she asked Heartland Ambulance Service for help.

“It’s kind of a first for me," said Randy Koch with Heartland Ambulance Service.

After taking her to a doctors appointment, Koch agreed to drive Vaughn to her polling location downtown. He and another employee helped her fill out her ballot, and cast her vote.

“Helping her to get out and do that, it’s kind of a civic duty,” Koch said.

A civic duty and a privilege that Vaughn was not going to waste.

"They’re wasting an opportunity that people have given up their lives for," Vaughn said of non-voters. "It's not a God-given right, people had to fight and die for this. Why do they want to waste it?”

Heartland Ambulance Service agreed to take Vaughn to the polls free of charge.